Three Percent Podcast

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#67: The Tom Podcast Dec 17, 2013

Show notes

From the choice of the opening song--"Royals" by Lorde--to the main topic of great midwestern bookstores and Wisconsin's beer culture, this podcast is All About Tom. And it's fantastic. Mostly because we get to talk about a lot of great bookstores.

Some of the stores mentioned in this podcast are:

The Book Stall (Winnetka, IL)
Boswell Book Company (Milwaukee, WI)
City Lit Books (Chicago, IL)
Common Good Books (St. Paul, MN)
Literati Bookstore (Ann Arbor, MI)
Magers & Quinn (Minneapolis, MN)
Micawber's Books (St. Paul, MN)
A Room of One's Own (Madison, WI)
Schuler Books & Music (Grand Rapids, MI)

#66: I Believe You Have My Stapler Nov 01, 2013

Show notes

On this week's podcast, Carolyn Kellogg of the Los Angeles Times joins us to discuss Thomas Pynchon's latest novel, Bleeding Edge. All three of us are Pynchon fans, and all three of us really like this latest book. Although, as we talk about, the fact that we experienced a lot of the cultural items Pynchon references makes this a bit odd . . . Like, Pynchon's watched Office Space? He is aware of Pokemon and Beanie Babies?

#65: Erudition Isn't the Same as Being Intentionally Esoteric Oct 16, 2013

Show notes

This week's podcast is the first one Tom and I have recorded in almost a month. So after a bit of catching up, we talked about David Bellos's new translation of Simenon's Pietr the Latvian, the difficulties of translating "I love you" and all the swears into Japanese, and the list of "The 20 Best Books in Translation You've Never Read." As necessary, we also talked about the baseball playoffs and a cute flowchart.

#64: Thanks for Using All the Umlauts Sep 19, 2013

Show notes

With Tom back from his relaxing vacation, we decided to catch up and talk about the books we read recently, including Sjöwall and Wahlöö's mystery series, Juan Gabriel Vasquez's The Sound of Things Falling, and Rafael Bernal's The Mongolian Conspiracy, among others. We also talk about Amazon's MatchBook program, making things as easy as possible for readers, and baseball. Because, baseball.

#63: Spermatic Economy Aug 13, 2013

Show notes

This week's podcast is a special combo version featuring two separate conversations: one between Chad, Stephen Sparks (BTBA judge, Green Apple bookseller, and excellent reviewer), and George Carroll; and one between Chad and Paul Yamazaki (legendary City Lights). Topics range from soccer to Karl Pohrt to Javier Marias to Jonathan Lethem to other books we're reading this summer. It's always great to hear from booksellers about what they're reading--they're more in touch with what's coming out than basically anyone. Additionally, it's always fun to give a bit more love to these two epically great bookstores.

#62: The Random Podcast Aug 06, 2013

Show notes

This week's podcast is a hodgepodge of opinions, rants, and jokes. We talked about summer music--and our mutual dislike of Robin Thicke--Hawthorne & Child, my trip to Brazil, and bike thieves. And nobody talked about J.K. Rowling or her widely-known pseudonym.

Enjoy!

#61: The Cheery Podcast Jun 21, 2013

Show notes

At the request of one of Tom's friends, we tried to keep this particular podcast upbeat and cheery . . . and we sort of succeeded. Most of the podcast revolves around "this interview from Publishing Perspectives that Amanda DeMarco did with German publisher Michael Krüger about the 40 years he's spent at Hanser and what's changed over that time. Krüger is a really interesting, brilliant guy, who doesn't shy away from saying some controversial things, so a) this interview is interesting, and b) so is our podcast.

#60: BEA and Sucking Jun 07, 2013

Show notes

This post-BookExpo America podcast (with special guest, Bromance Will/Will Evans, the man behind Deep Vellum Press) is all about the good and bad of the country's largest trade show for publishing. Mostly, it's a series of rants--not necessarily about the show itself, but about the crap that craps it all up. From tech-speak nonsense to Mitch "Fucking" Albom, this is one of the funniest and most fiery podcasts we've recorded to date.

#59: Don't Call Your Website "Book" Anything May 28, 2013

Show notes

On this week's podcast, Chad and Tom make fun of yet another new "social book community recommendation" website. Also, they discuss the awesomeness of a number of San Francisco bookstores (and bookstores in general), on the heels of Tom's first trip to The City by the Bay.

#58: Richard Nash. May 03, 2013

Show notes

We're back! With our newest and semi-delayed installment of the Three Percent Podcast. This week is a two-parter. First, Chad and Tom run down the list of fiction and poetry finalists for the 2013 Best Translated Book Awards. Yes, it's true that these were announced a couple weeks ago, but, as luck would have it, today (Friday, May 3) happens to be the big awards ceremony, which is taking place at the PEN World Voices Festival in NYC (come one, come all!). So, what better time than now to brush up on the potential winners?

Then, the podcast's main event: Chad and Tom are joined by the one-and-only Richard Nash to talk about Richard's recent article in the Virginia Quarterly Review. The title and subtitle should give you a nice teaser to their discussion: "What Is the Business of Literature?: As technology disrupts the business model of traditional publishers, the industry must imagine new ways of capturing the value of a book."

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